left school when they'd turned fourteen. 'Kids have to go out and earn money and help the family,' he said. 'No bloody use feeding them to go to university!'
Nancy got really cranky with him, 'You've been saying that since she was a nipper! She's always wanted to be a doctor. It's bloody high time things changed in the bush and, besides, maybe she'll practise in Page 56
Sydney or, Melbourne, where being a woman doctor isn't thought of as a crime against humanity!'
'She won't bloody get in, they'll naturally give all the places to blokes.' Tommy didn't usually get involved but he seemed pretty het up about Sarah wanting to go to university, let alone be a doctor.
'Then I'll become a journalist,' Sarah shouted from where she was studying at the kitchen table. 'The Age has cadetships and I'm applying for that as well!'
Tommy even had something to say about that. 'Yeah, writing up tea parties about the Toorak matrons. Journalist, huh? That's just about as bad as a woman doctor, only less pay.'
'That's enough, Tommy!' Nancy warned, 'You've had your say, now leave the girl alone.'
'That girl's getting much too big for her boots, I hear she's going out with Phil Templeton's boy, who does she think she is?'
It was true, after the social, Murray Templeton started walking Sarah home from school every day and they'd hang around the gate for an hour talking, that boy's beginning to hang around like a bad smell,' Nancy said after a while. you've got things to do and then there's your study. I don't want him walking you home, you hear? He seems a nice boy, that I'll
admit, but the Templetons are not for the likes of us and it won't work.'
Sarah got pretty upset and she and Nancy didn't talk for three days and the both of them were in a real shitty mood. With all of us walking on egshells, Mike tried to work out a deal with Nancy.
Mum, you were only seventeen when you had Sarah and you were going out with a soldier, Mike reminded her.
'Times were different then, most girls were married by the time they were sixteen.'
But Mike kept at her. He could talk Nancy into just about anything. When we'd ask Nancy if we could do something and she'd refuse, I'd complain, 'But you always let Mike do what he wants!'
'That's because he has a good head on his shoulders,' Nancy would reply.
'So what's so wrong with my head?' I'd ask.
'It lacks maturity, still soft.'
'And Bozo?'
She'd laugh, 'Him, too.'
Page 57
So Mike's good head negotiated Sarah's plight. In return for Murray Templeton not walking Sarah back from school, they could go out to the pictures, which finished Saturday night at half-past ten.
Sarah had to be home by a quarter to eleven so there could be no driving out to the lake after. It was Saturday night out with her boyfriend, or if he was playing in a footy game, she could go to it with him. One or the other, not both on the same day It was this either-or scheme that finally won Nancy over. Mike said later that it allowed her to back down gracefully and still seem to have some control, because deep down she knew Sarah was tougher and more stubborn than her.
Of course, I knew Murray Templeton was a Proddy but I'd gained a fair bit of kudos at school because he was taking Sarah out. Kids would say they saw him and Sarah at the flicks Saturday night or in the Holden, or they'd seen them together at the footy. Philip Templeton, his dad, would use a car off his used-car lot if he was going out of a Saturday night and give his son Nancy's pumpkin carriage. That's how much he trusted him.
The summer was the hottest it had been for several years and the bushfire danger was way up past the high-alert stage. When the north winds blew, gusting up through the valley, people would say, 'Very bad for fires', looking up at the burning sky.
The eucalyptus underbrush was bone-dry and heaped high after three years of good rains and then a drought the following year. People in the pub, looking over the frothy top of a schooner, would
Nancy got really cranky with him, 'You've been saying that since she was a nipper! She's always wanted to be a doctor. It's bloody high time things changed in the bush and, besides, maybe she'll practise in Page 56
Sydney or, Melbourne, where being a woman doctor isn't thought of as a crime against humanity!'
'She won't bloody get in, they'll naturally give all the places to blokes.' Tommy didn't usually get involved but he seemed pretty het up about Sarah wanting to go to university, let alone be a doctor.
'Then I'll become a journalist,' Sarah shouted from where she was studying at the kitchen table. 'The Age has cadetships and I'm applying for that as well!'
Tommy even had something to say about that. 'Yeah, writing up tea parties about the Toorak matrons. Journalist, huh? That's just about as bad as a woman doctor, only less pay.'
'That's enough, Tommy!' Nancy warned, 'You've had your say, now leave the girl alone.'
'That girl's getting much too big for her boots, I hear she's going out with Phil Templeton's boy, who does she think she is?'
It was true, after the social, Murray Templeton started walking Sarah home from school every day and they'd hang around the gate for an hour talking, that boy's beginning to hang around like a bad smell,' Nancy said after a while. you've got things to do and then there's your study. I don't want him walking you home, you hear? He seems a nice boy, that I'll
admit, but the Templetons are not for the likes of us and it won't work.'
Sarah got pretty upset and she and Nancy didn't talk for three days and the both of them were in a real shitty mood. With all of us walking on egshells, Mike tried to work out a deal with Nancy.
Mum, you were only seventeen when you had Sarah and you were going out with a soldier, Mike reminded her.
'Times were different then, most girls were married by the time they were sixteen.'
But Mike kept at her. He could talk Nancy into just about anything. When we'd ask Nancy if we could do something and she'd refuse, I'd complain, 'But you always let Mike do what he wants!'
'That's because he has a good head on his shoulders,' Nancy would reply.
'So what's so wrong with my head?' I'd ask.
'It lacks maturity, still soft.'
'And Bozo?'
She'd laugh, 'Him, too.'
Page 57
So Mike's good head negotiated Sarah's plight. In return for Murray Templeton not walking Sarah back from school, they could go out to the pictures, which finished Saturday night at half-past ten.
Sarah had to be home by a quarter to eleven so there could be no driving out to the lake after. It was Saturday night out with her boyfriend, or if he was playing in a footy game, she could go to it with him. One or the other, not both on the same day It was this either-or scheme that finally won Nancy over. Mike said later that it allowed her to back down gracefully and still seem to have some control, because deep down she knew Sarah was tougher and more stubborn than her.
Of course, I knew Murray Templeton was a Proddy but I'd gained a fair bit of kudos at school because he was taking Sarah out. Kids would say they saw him and Sarah at the flicks Saturday night or in the Holden, or they'd seen them together at the footy. Philip Templeton, his dad, would use a car off his used-car lot if he was going out of a Saturday night and give his son Nancy's pumpkin carriage. That's how much he trusted him.
The summer was the hottest it had been for several years and the bushfire danger was way up past the high-alert stage. When the north winds blew, gusting up through the valley, people would say, 'Very bad for fires', looking up at the burning sky.
The eucalyptus underbrush was bone-dry and heaped high after three years of good rains and then a drought the following year. People in the pub, looking over the frothy top of a schooner, would
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